Winners Celebrate Skipton Business Awards

Excitement was high as business owners, family and friends gathered to celebrate Skipton Business Awards 2019 at The Rendezvous Hotel. Sixteen coveted trophies were presented at the ceremony which included fine dining, whoops, smiles and applause as the business community celebrated in style.
ow in their third year, the awards received record entries, making the task for the judging panel of independent business experts the most difficult ever.

Ivan Le Roux, President of Skipton Chamber of Trade & Commerce launched the evening with a passionate speech saying “I was honoured to be chosen as President of this long-established organisation” and going on to emphasise that “The success of these awards is evident by the number of people here tonight, the increase in entries for the categories and continued sponsorship support from the business community.” He gave special thanks to Headline Sponsor Skipton BID and the category sponsors, also to Malcolm and Karen Weaving, Amanda Casey and their incredible team at The Rendezvous Hotel.

Chamber & Awards’ Coordinator, Wendy Griffin, introduced the Special Chamber Award. Wendy explained: “The Executive choose to recognise a company, organisation, people or person with strong links to the Chamber, with the ethos of going above and beyond everyday expectations and offering a contribution to the Skipton and BD23 area which helps the businesses and therefore the community. This year the Executive chose to present the award to the Skipton Town Ambassadors team.”

This proved to be a popular decision greeted with rapturous cheers and applause as Judy Probst, Tourism & Community Liaison Officer and Supervisor of the Skipton Town Ambassadors moved to the stage to collect the Award along with Alistair Clayton-Stead, one of the longest serving voluntary Ambassadors.

From the winners of each category the judging panel chose the Overall Winner Award. J B Springs (John Binns & Son (Springs) Ltd) collected the title, having been presented earlier with the Best Manufacturing & Engineering Award. The judges commented: “Manufacturing often takes a beating with too many ‘bad news’ stories in this sector, but here we have a shining example of the best of what manufacturing in this area can provide. This is a brilliant ‘good news’ story for the town and its economy which was a real highlight of the judging process. This business is a real breath of fresh air in the manufacturing sector and deserves all the plaudits it receives; a deserving winner of this award.”

Details of the winners and finalists in each category can be found on the awards’ website http://www.skiptonbusinessawards.co.uk/.